Practical Vedanta

Practical Vedantait is only through freedom that we see what it is, and understand its nature. Weshall see then that this so-called law, or fate, or destiny occupied only aninfinitesimal part of our nature. It was only one side, but on the other side therewas freedom all the time. We did not know this, and that is why we have beentrying to save ourselves from evil by hiding our faces in the ground, like thehunted hare. Through delusion we have been trying to forget our nature, and yetwe could not; it was always calling upon us, and all our search after God or gods,or external freedom, was a search after our real nature. We mistook the voice. Wethought it was from the fire, or from a god or the sun, or moon, or stars, but at lastwe have found that it was from within ourselves. Within ourselves is this eternalvoice speaking of eternal freedom; its music is eternally going on. Part of thismusic of the Soul has become the earth, the law, this universe, but it was alwaysours and always will be. In one word, the ideal of Vedanta is to know man as hereally is, and this is its message, that if you cannot worship your brother man, themanifested God, how can you worship a God who is unmanifested?Do you not remember what the Bible says, "If you cannot love your brother whomyou have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?" If you cannotsee God in the human face, how can you see him in the clouds, or in images madeof dull, dead matter, or in mere fictitious stories of our brain? I shall call youreligious from the day you begin to see God in men and women, and then you willunderstand what is meant by turning the left cheek to the man who strikes you onthe right. When you see man as God, everything, even the tiger, will be welcome.Whatever comes to you is but the Lord, the Eternal, the Blessed One, appearing tous in various forms, as our father, and mother, and friend, and child — they areour own soul playing with us.As our human relationships can thus be made divine, so our relationship with Godmay take any of these forms and we can look upon Him as our father, or mother,or friend, or beloved. Calling God Mother is a higher ideal than calling HimFather; and to call Him Friend is still higher; but the highest is to regard Him asthe Beloved. The highest point of all is to see no difference between lover andbeloved. You may remember, perhaps, the old Persian story, of how a lover cameand knocked at the door of the beloved and was asked, "Who are you?" Heanswered, "It is I", and there was no response. A second time he came, andexclaimed, "I am here", but the door was not opened. The third time he came, andthe voice asked from inside, "Who is there?" He replied, "I am thyself, mybeloved", and the door opened. So is the relation between God and ourselves. Heis in everything, He is everything. Every man and woman is the palpable, blissful,living God. Who says God is unknown? Who says He is to be searched after? Wehave found God eternally. We have been living in Him eternally; everywhere Heis eternally known, eternally worshipped.Then comes another idea, that other forms of worship are not errors. This is one ofthe great points to be remembered, that those who worship God throughceremonials and forms, however crude we may think them to be, are not in error.file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selva...oksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (21 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:33 AM